Paul Lawton and the close of Mammoth Cave Records

Paul Lawton on arts grants:

“You should be supporting the infrastructure, and enabling more people,” Lawton says when asked about an alternative model. “If we’re in a fragmented universe, and my taste is not the same as your taste, if we cannot agree on any of that, then that money intended to promote Canadian culture and Canadian art making should be supporting infrastructure in terms of rehearsal lessons, music lessons, supporting independent, non-bar-based performance spaces. It should be for recording studios, things that allow people to make and produce and share art.

“If the purpose of it is to keep Canadians interested, it should be about enabling people to do that better,” he says. “As opposed to giving the lion’s share going towards one label or band or group, because we think they’re the surest thing.”